More Articles

Employees of a South Side market traded food-stamp funds for cash, alcohol, cigarettes and drugs
over much of the past year, according to a search warrant filed last week.

Two employees at the Kent Street Market illegally sold beer, wine and cigarettes to
undercover patrons paying with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards, investigators say.
They also bought and sold the cards — collectively worth thousands of dollars — and traded
marijuana and crack cocaine for them.

“They were trading drugs for SNAP benefits,” said SuAnn Cook, agent-in-charge for the Ohio
Investigative Unit. “What’s supposed to be food for families is now marijuana and crack.”

Umer Mubarak Mohamed, 33, who is listed as living at the market at 1656 Kent St., is charged
with 24 counts of trafficking in food stamps, a fifth-degree felony, and five counts of trafficking
in drugs. He also is facing two misdemeanor counts of receiving stolen property.

Tirhas B. Yeboyd, 44, of 1734 E. Long St., has been charged with nine counts of trafficking
in food stamps and two counts of trafficking in drugs.

Both Mohamed and Yeboyd were arrested on Friday, and each was released on $5,000 bond.
Another person also was charged with selling drugs at the market.

SNAP, known for years as the food-stamp program, is a federal program that provides a way for
low- and no-income people living in the United States to purchase food. It is administered through
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with benefits distributed through the states.

Recipients previously were issued paper stamps to buy food, but in the late 1990s, that was
switched to a debit card that could be used to pay for items.

A search warrant filed in Franklin County Municipal Court details the undercover operation,
conducted by the Ohio Investigative Unit and Columbus police.

It began on April 25 when a confidential informant sold 40 packs of cigarettes and 24 Red
Bull drinks, which he said were stolen, to Umer Mohamed for $200.

Criminal activity progressed to allowing customers to illegally use their SNAP benefits to
buy beer, wine and cigarettes, investigators say. Employees, they say, later began paying cash for
SNAP cards or trading them for cash, then drugs.

Mohamed and Yeboyd were blatant in the request for cards and the exchanges, Cook said,
offering 50 cents on the dollar for a card. On Oct. 22, Yeboyd’s son — who hasn’t been charged —
gave an undercover agent a small bag of marijuana as partial payment for $380 in SNAP benefits on a
card, according to the warrant. On several visits after that, the clerks traded SNAP cards for
marijuana.

Undercover agents or informants visited the market 28 times from April through last week. The
search warrant was executed on Friday.

Though the store’s owner, Mohamed Mohamed, hasn’t been criminally charged, prosecutors
requested a nuisance hearing against the property in Franklin County Environmental Court.

In addition to Yeboyd and Mohamed, a third man, Thomas Clayton, 47, of 694 Carpenter St., has
been charged with trafficking in drugs and a warrant was issued for his arrest last week.
Investigators say that Clayton, who wasn’t employed at the store, sold $100 worth of crack cocaine
to an undercover agent at the store on Dec. 5.

In addition to the criminal charges, the market will face violations on its liquor permit,
which could bring a fine or cause the permit to be revoked or suspended.

Food-stamp fraud is regularly investigated by state agents, Cook said. Buyers sell the cards
as cash, trade them for drugs or use them to buy food to resell in stores.

She said this particular case was significant in its blatancy and impact on the neighborhood.

“Those retailers who don’t want to follow the rules or provide for a community’s needs, we’re
going to investigate,” she said.